Owyhigh Lakes Trail Spring Hike

With a weather forecast of mostly cloudy, I decided it was a good day to do a "no view of Mt Rainier" hike in Mt Rainier National Park. We choose to hike the Owyhigh Lakes Trail from the north end on the White River road off of Hwy 410. The trail goes by Owyhigh Lakes at 3.5 miles, a pass at 4 miles, connects to the Eastside Hwy at 8.8 miles and connects to the Eastside Trail where you can hike down to Ohanapecosh 17 miles from the trailhead where we began. We decided to hike to the pass and a bit beyond before returning to the trailhead where we began. We hiked about 8.5 miles with an elevation gain of 1650 ft. The trail starts as a nice easy ascent in the forest for the first 0.25 miles, before ascending in a series of switchbacks for the next 2.25 miles.

 At the first switchback there was a view of Shaw Creek, we did not see any water in the rocky creek bed.

The trail was nice and soft. There were several small wooden bridges to cross with a few trees on the trail to step over or around.

 The trail passes over an unnamed creek several times.

 At the top of the switchback section there is a log crossing over this creek, where the waters was coming off of a large melting snow field.

 We hiked over a few snow patches on our way to Owyhigh Lakes.

 We heard several grouse along the trail, but only saw this one.

 The last mile of the trail on the way to Owyhigh Lakes is fairly flat. When you see Governors Ridge between the trees, you are close to the lakes.

View of Owyhigh Lakes with Governors Ridge behind them to the east.

To the west is Tamanos Mountain.

We decided to hike up to the pass before returning to the lakes for a lunch break.

 Looking back at Tamanos Mountain with a field of glacier lilies and anemones in the foreground.

 Looking back at Owyhigh Lakes and the north end of Governors Ridge.

 From Owyhigh Lakes to the pass the 0.5 mile trail was covered in snow. The snow wasn't too deep, we didn't need snowshoes or microspikes.

The pass is where Governors Ridge and Tamanos Mountain meet, before the trail begins to descend another 4.8 miles to the Eastside Road.

 Panorama at the pass looking south. The knobby peak is Barrier Peak.

Panorama at the pass looking north west towards Tamanos Mountain.

We met someone who was hiking to Owyhigh Lakes from the Eastside Road, he said there were better views of the Cowlitz Chimneys a little ways down the trail, so we decided to go take a look.
The trail continued in and out of the snow to a hill meadow where we could see the Cowlitz Chimneys through the clouds:

We waited a while, but the clouds would not lift.

Hiking back to the pass, through a field of glacier lilies.

Back at Owyhigh Lakes for a lunch break before returning home. Panorama looking east:

Some of the wildflowers we saw on our hike today: